Matt was born on November 29, 1974, in Pipestone, MN. During his first few years he lived with his mother and older sister. Also, there were times when Matt and his sister lived with us, his maternal grandparents. At age 12 Matt and his sister moved to El Reno, OK with us. After about a year Matt and his sister went to California to live with their father. After one year Matt returned to Oklahoma to live with his mother and two half-brothers in Miami. His sister continued to live in Napa, CA. Matt finished high school and started college. However, he quit the first semester after he broke a leg playing football. After working around Miami for a couple of years Matt decided to join the Navy.

During the funeral for his great grandfather, Matt looked very thin and tired. His grandmother told him to stay in El Reno with us and we would get an appointment to see a doctor. Matt was immediately diagnosed with type A diabetes. Joining the Navy now was out of the question. We asked Matt to live with us and again go to college in El Reno. Matt attended college and had a part time job. Matt managed his health and life very well for a young man. His future looked very good and he enjoyed life very much. The date was March 13, 1997.

Matt had had college in the morning and had gone to work in the afternoon. Matt came home at 4:00 PM as usual to have his dinner and insulin shot. After dinner he returned to work to finish some task undone during the day. He returned home around 6:15, took a shower and settled in for a restful evening. Around 7:30 he received a phone call from an acquaintance to go into OKC for a few games of pool. Matt had only met this man once about two months before at a party. Being rather tired that evening, Matt stated he would be home by ten.

His grandmother woke up about 2:30 and noticed that Matt had not come home yet. She rested on the couch waiting for Matt to come home. When Matt had not returned home by the time his grandfather went to work, we were worried because Matt was now past when he needed his insulin shot. His grandmother was cleaning the breakfast dishes when a news bulletin on the TV said that an unidentified white male in his early twenties was found in an auto auction parking lot at I-40 and Portland. They showed the body lying face down on the ground. She called Matt's grandfather to come home from work because she was very scared. She then called the Oklahoma City Police Department to find out if the body had been identified. She told them that Matt had not come home last night and gave them Matt's description. They said they would get the description to the Homicide Division and be back in touch.

We filed a missing persons report with the El Reno Police Department. Also, all area hospitals were called to inquire if they had treated/admitted Matt or if they had a "John Doe" fitting Matt's description. All responded in the negative.

About 2:30 PM we talked to the OKCPD to ask if the body had been identified. They again asked for Matt's physical description and any tattoos. We again gave a full description of Matt and what he was wearing and that we knew he had one or two tattoos on the back of his shoulders but we did not know the exact details of the tattoos. The OKCPD informed that we should prepare for a shock because the body was probably Matt. The detective said they would come to the house and look at pictures before he could make a more positive identification.

In just a few minutes the El Reno police came to the house stating that the OKCPD had requested they stay with us until the OKCPD could get to the house. About 4:00 PM they arrived and after looking at pictures they said that it was Matt. We gave permission for them to look thru Matt's room.

On March 17 the OKCPD called to advise us that they were in the process of getting a warrant to arrest a suspect. On March 21 they called and said that the FBI had arrested the suspect at his parent’s house in Houston, Texas. The suspect had called his girl friend from his parent’s home. The police had that phone line tapped. The suspect made no statements and asked for an attorney. The gun, Matt's car and wallet were not recovered.

On April 4 we called the OKCPD to ask about the status of transferring the suspect to OKC. We were informed that the suspect had been transferred to OKC on April 1 but we had not been informed.

Eventually the OKCPD handed the case file over to the District Attorney. We wrote a letter to the DA to inform him that we would be the contact for our entire family and we would keep the family informed. Our case was assigned a young Assistant DA with little experience but she had lots of courage. On the spur of the moment she typed up a letter for the DA to sign which stated that the state would seek the death penalty for Matt's murderer. The DA signed the letter which we believe helped gain an outcome we could accept. We asked the DA for an experienced second ADA since the case was now a death penalty case. A more experienced "second chair" was assigned to help our ADA. During our first meeting with her she made a comment that the ADA's would not try to get close to Matt's family or be warm and cozy but would handle the case very business-like. We immediately went to the DA and asked him to remove her which he did.

Soon we were assigned a new Assistant District Attorney who was very experienced and business-like but very cool to us. We knew that her experience was what we needed for the case so we overlooked the lack of a personal feeling toward our ADA that we had hoped we would have. As time went on all the i's were dotted and the t's were crossed and the case was just waiting to go to trial.

One day shortly before the trial date I received a call from an ADA that I had worked with before on a separate issue not related to our case. He asked how I would feel about him taking over our case and taking it to trial. This was just about more than we dared wish for. He was smart, experienced, outstanding in the court room and very aware of the surviving victims needs. In an instant I accepted his offer to take our case. We knew that we now had the best ADA in the system and even with our less than overwhelmingly strong death penalty case, we were hopeful of a favorable outcome.

Out of nowhere our ADA received a letter from the murderer's public defender that he wanted to plead guilty to first degree murder for a sentence of life with out parole. In addition, to insure he would never get out of prison, he would plead guilty to a reinstated charge of homicide during commission of a felony (that was one of the original charges but was dropped early in the case) for a life sentence. After much discussion with family members we decided to accept his pleadings if he would first submit to a taped police interview and disclose all the details of the crime and why he did it. He did.

His confession stated that he had met Matt in early January at a party in OKC. In early March he and his girl friend split so he was living in a motel and had no job and no car. He wanted a car to go to Houston, Texas where his mother lived. He remembered Matt from the party so called him and asked to be picked up and go shoot some pool. After some beers and whatever else he did, he wanted to go to a different place. After a potty stop in a dark place, he shot Matt twice after getting back in the car. He dumped Matt in the auto auction parking lot and drove to Lawton to visit a friend. After an all night party he told his friend what he had done and headed back to OKC. He went to see a female friend and again told about killing someone. Then he drove to his mother's house in Houston. He said he took the gun apart and threw parts out the car window on the way to Houston. He drove the car to a very secluded, wooded area and burned it. Then he called his girl friend in OKC on his mother's telephone. The FBI had the phones tapped and immediately arrested him.

Our family accepted his confession knowing it was probably the best we would ever get. So he is now living the rest of his life in prison. Thru reports from the Department of Corrections we have learned that he has not adapted too well to his new life. He has been written up four times for possession/manufacture of contraband, destruction of property, having property belonging to others, unexcused absence and finally transferred to Oklahoma State Prison-Maximum Security for behavior problems.